FCB Health Fights Discrimination Against Blood Donors

by IPG |
Published on 01/05/2016 Agency:FCB HealthDisciplines:
Advertising / Full Service

FCB Health, working with GMHC and other organizations, has launched “BLOOD EQUALITY,” an initiative aimed at stopping discrimination against prospective blood donors.

Each year, 615,000 pints of blood are turned away — blood that could help save the lives of more than a million people — because the donors are gay or bisexual men. In 1983, the FDA issued a lifetime ban on all men who have sex with other men from donating blood. In early 2015, the FDA asked for public comments regarding amending the lifetime ban, including the change to a one-year deferral, allowing gay and bisexual men to donate blood – only if they have been celibate for a year.

The print campaign argues that it’s time for science, not stigma, to rule, and that the change to the one-year ban does not go far enough in eliminating discrimination.